Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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Three Things for Tuesday Night

   Hello there you fine citizens! 
I need to take a one-day hiatus from the Proverbs 31 project
in order to touch on a couple of things. 

   Item #1: Our llama adoption is proving to be quite the memory maker. Since Sunday afternoon when he arrived, we have witnessed a steady stream of four-legged drama. All is well, really; we have neither injury nor illness to report. It’s just that the llama is a whole lot more interested in buddying up with Daphne, our moody mare, than she is interested in even being in the same field as him.
   She runs and snorts and screams and then runs some more, and he just stares at her and gives a little chase now and then. It’s not a menacing stare exactly, but I’ll admit it’s unnerving. If a strange man stared at me like that I’d have to get all Charlie’s Angels about it.

   And Chanta, the alpha horse, continues to be annoyed by the whole situation. He has capitalized on the conflict by simply eating everyone’s sweet grain each morning. You might say he’s an emotional eater.

   The normally wide-range geese are steering clear of all this west-end commotion, barely venturing past the Talking Tree in fact. And it is just a matter of time, folks, before our little buffalo Chunk-Hi feels an urge to socialize that is stronger than the gate holding him in the front field. Eventually he will catch a good, solid glimpse of this loping, table-backed creature and not be able to contain his joy. I rue that future day, Sirs, I rue that day.

   The other thing about this llama is that I have never in my life had so much trouble naming an animal. The flurry of brainstorming with my friends, though, has been endlessly entertaining. I have boiled and reduced the options into categories, and perhaps tomorrow I’ll finally decide. It’s not like he answers my call yet anyway.
   Item #2: I ran my first 5K this past weekend! It was a crazy fun event in Guthrie, Oklahoma, called the Zombie Bolt. I ran it with my friend Trisha, and Handsome accompanied us in our recently dolled up Ford farm truck, now affectionately known as the Zombie Hunter. I can barely tell you in a short paragraph how much fun this was! We laughed almost constantly and made a thousand fun memories more or less evading really aggressive zombies. As for the running part, I am definitely hooked and plan to train for some competitive races this coming year.
Here’s a riddle for you:
Q. How did you know when someone has run a marathon?
A. Oh, don’t worry. They’ll tell you.
   

   Item #3: Please make a point to click back over here tomorrow for an incredibly well written guest post on the whole chapter of Proverbs 31. My guest is Suzanne from over at Periphery, and she flat out honors me with her virtual visit to the Lazy W. Please click here for a link to the first post of hers I ever read, “In This Economy.” You will understand how her deep-seated optimism, blooming warmth, and intelligence captivated me from the get-go. She writes fluidly and as though you are following her through a deep, complex maze that is both padded and fragranced but also plenty challenging.
   Please do check in tomorrow. And give yourself the gift of a quiet room and a cup of something steaming and delicious for when you read what she has to share. I have already read it four times, and I am in love all over again.

   Okay, sweet dreams everyone! Thanks so much for reading! Hope to see you tomorrow for a delicious spin on Proverbs 31.

“If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams 
and you will always look lovely.”
~Roald Dahl
xoxoxoxo

Proverbs 31: She Might Have Been a Llama Momma

   I mean, really, it’s totally possible that the fabled lady of Proverbs 31 would have kept, in addition to so many other creatures, a llama. This charming and idiosyncratic animal is highly practical, a characteristic she would have prized. It is hard wired to protect its neighboring animals; it doesn’t eat that much (compared to pigs, cows, or horses); and it is hardy in tough conditions. Also, besides being practical, llamas are incredibly joyful. And this coming week we are going to discover just how much the Proverbs 31 woman prizes both practicality and joy-making!

   For this application alone, 
really just to support my 31-day foray into Proverbs, 
today Handsome and I adopted a llama.
My husband is extremely supportive 
of all of my crazy projects.

   Our new addition arrived this afternoon via trailer delivery from our wonderful friends and mentors Dean and Maribeth. He was laying down comfortably and munching what I can only assume was manna straight from heaven. I climbed up on the back on the trailer to peek at him, and when we made fleeting eye contact he looked away firmly with that snooty, Roman nose thrust into the frosty air.

   Anyway, he is now strolling his regal self around the middle field, temporarily segregated from the horses and buffalo. He is unaware that, being the newest guy on the block, he is lowest on the totem pole. He and our biggest horse, Chanta, are jockeying for position Numero Uno over the wire fence.

   If the Proverbs 31 lady did in fact keep a llama, I predict she would trim his hooves on her own, brush that matted and mysterious fur daily to a gleaming sheen, and also make sure he is so well socialized that only intruders are spat upon.
   Time will tell if I meet the llama criteria for Proverbs 31. Until then, I just plain love him. I love his arrogant expression. I love his bright white face markings. I love his perfectly straight back and fluffy tail. I love the way he runs downhill and then charges into the pine tree. I love the way he frightens my mare and challenges our alpha. I love that he doesn’t yet understand how much time we will spend together. So, so much time you guys. Tomorrow I will finish my reading goals aloud in his field so he grows accustomed to my voice. Maybe.
   We haven’t named this guy yet. he is only a few months shy of three years old, and he is kind of full of himself. Do you have any ideas? Over at this blog’s Facebook page, some fabulously entertaining people are already cooking up ideas. Join the fun!
   Tomorrow I expect we will be back on track for Proverbs 31, and as we go along I will share more about our llama and his fuzzy companions. Have a lovely evening, have a spectacular beginning to your new work week, and thanks so much for reading!

“You enter into a certain amount of madness
when you marry a person with pets.”
~Nora Ephron
xoxoxoxo

 

40 Days Till Easter

   Springtime is high season for me. This is when everything greens up and things start to bloom. This is when the house is cleanest and my mind freshest. My birthday rolls around. And Easter approaches. I love Easter even more than Christmas, for a million reasons. Do you?
   Easter is when promises are kept. Easter is the fulfillment of hope and the answer to hard wrought prayers. It is a wonderful time for healing and forgiveness. It is the time of every single year of life that we can celebrate the light that follows darkness. Without fail, and independent of anything we do, springtime warms us up and gets our hearts thumping again. And Easter is the culmination of all the waiting, all the spiritual dormancy, all the deadness.
   This year I want to be ready. In yet another bizarre way, God is whispering to my heart a hidden meaning behind our childlessness… that I should be redeeming my time more wisely, not just filling it up. Not just comforting myself or wishing the weeks away. The hours that might otherwise be spent on coloring eggs and shopping for frothy Easter dresses can be spent studying the Word and preparing my heart for miracles.
“God is eagerly waiting for the chance 
to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, 
just as He always has. 
But He can’t do it if you don’t pray, 
and He can’t do it if you don’t dream. 
In short, He can’t do it if you don’t believe.”
~ Jeffrey R. Holland 

   I am not sure I agree with Mr. Holland’s word choice here, saying that there’s anything God can’t do, but I certainly agree and believe that the Lord wants a relationship with each of us, privately and permanently and apart from worldly tethers, and so we need to seek Him. That’s our part. Praying, dreaming, hoping, trusting, believing in His goodness above all else, far beyond pain. And in doing so we are assured that He will be there with strong, capable, powerful, merciful, loving open arms.
   And by the way, YES. God has already answered so many big, incredible prayers for us! Why would I ever stop believing in Him? So many dreams are already fulfilled, I get chills to reflect on where we are in life, on how much love already surrounds us. These yet unanswered longings, these fears which remain, are only scabbed over by my own limitations. He has the power to heal all of it, to work miracles I cannot even imagine! Same goes for you and your heart, whatever it is that you’re hoping for or against, He already knows.
   As late winter stretches and yawns herself into the dawn of another springtime, the life giving tremors of Easter are very real to me. Regret over wasted time and spiritual deadness is finally evaporating under the warmth of hope. The busy-keeping activity of recent months, trying to work away pain and over and over again struggling to make sense of things in my own weak ways, is being replaced with a craving for spiritual activity, seeking what He wants me to seek and discovering His power again.
“Let the past sleep, but let it sleep 
on the bosom of Christ, and go out into 
the irresistible future with Him.”
~Oswald Chambers from My Utmost for His Highest
   Lest we get too awfully serious this morning, below is a photo of Tomato the rooster. You know, spring chickens and all. He was only a few weeks old when this photo was taken, and my nephew Zane (well, Zane is *sort of* my nephew, and I love him so much) named him not knowing this feathery creature’s gender. I think it’s a perfect name. You may notice that Tomato got a bright red talon polishing that day, too, which may or may not have affected his personality in the long run. That was two years ago.   
   Nowadays Tomato runs free and wild when the sun is out. His rooster comb is a little wonky, which helps me tell him apart from the others. This is good because his full grown talons have lost their red glamour and we have several white and black roosters. Tomato can be a trouble maker, but we think he’s cool.
   However you observe Ash Wednesday, whatever your rituals are for preparing for Easter, springtime, or just another fresh new day of being alive, I wish you the very best. I wish you a long, wide view of the world, a closeness to Love,  and renewed hope for the biggest miracles you crave! Paint your talons red if it thrills you, and be happy. You are loved, and big things are waiting.
“I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”
~Psalm 34:4
xoxoxo
   

Raised Beds: Foundation Day

   A scientist is in Heaven. He walks up to God and claims to have cracked the code for creating life, that he knows how to manipulate small amounts of common soil to become a living, breathing organism.

   The Lord smiled patiently and said, “Okay.”

   “I’m serious.”

   “I can see that, my child, so let’s go to My Laboratory and you can show me what you can do.” So God leads the scientist to His Laboratory and welcomes him inside.

   “Okay,” says the scientist eagerly, “all I need is some dirt.”

   “Uh-uh, sorry,” the Lord replies laughingly, “get your own dirt.”

********************

   So I’m making my own dirt. Not to blasphemously create life, just to grow some delicious fruits and veggies. Today Mia the Gander helped me fill the first three beds. It was a luscious way to spend another unseasonably warm January afternoon, with photos to prove it this time. I am feeling really optimistic about the garden this year, you guys. 
First, we have some scrap cardboard cut to lay flat on the ground.
This is eventually decompose, but in the mean time 
it should block the worst weeds.
Yay for no plastic!!
The whole cardboard cutting event was highly fascinating to Mia.
Can you blame him?
Then I layered on a few inches of dried leaves.
Just for fun, take note of the X shaped shadow up on the wall.
Over the dried leaves went a lot of manure.
A little manure scooping advice:
Whenever possible, scoop uphill
Let gravity be your friend.
Oh, and speaking of fascinated animals, as I scooped manure
our two geldings could not be more enrapt.
At one point Dusty nosed my very full wheelbarrow
and I had to urge him NOT to eat it.
He asked me why, pointing out the obvious fact 
that his manure is little more than compressed grass, hay, and excess grain.
Which is exactly his daily diet.
He had a legitimate question: at what point does food cease to be food?
That raised questions of cannibalism, etc, for which I had precious few answers.
Things got very philosophical in the middle field today.
The last ingredient was slightly moist, matted together shred.
Hey, did you notice the X shadow move? 
The sun was receding as I worked.
But Mia never left my side.
He nibbled winter greens 
and supervised my activities tirelessly.
He is the world’s most faithful, 
most affectionate, most curious gander.
Amend Your Soil!
Get a Head Start!
xoxoxo
   

Self Sufficient (Small Stone January 18th)

   This morning was cold. Beautiful, yes, but definitely colder than the deliciously warm days we’ve enjoyed all month. The pond wore a thin skin of ice even where the sun could reach.  The grass was crunchy with frost. And all the animals were heaving out plumes of steamy breath as they patrolled the farm. One of my jobs this morning was to make sure everyone could find fresh water to drink throughout the day.
   I did that and some other things and was quietly distributing piles of hay for the four-leggeds and tearing off bits of stale bread for the birds when I heard it. A loud, crushing sound and then a splash behind me. Chunk-hi had hammered his great, square chin and then his massive horns against the ice in his trough, releasing the loose water beneath it.

   “Oh I’m sorry, little buddy, I totally forgot about your trough!”

   “That’s okay, Mom. I got this.” His long beard was dripping with water, his horns shiny and steaming. Long black eyelashes blinking calmly at me.

   He can’t really talk, you guys. He’s a buffalo. But we understand each other just fine.